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Product Description
Review
Clever, provocative and fresh as a daisy (Literary Review )
Full of splendid ideas, often happily and beautifully expressed . . . an engaging and intelligent book (Independent )
Full of splendid ideas, often happily and beautifully expressed . . . an engaging and intelligent book (Independent )
Product Description
Bestselling author Alain de Botton has written about love, travel, status and how philosophy can console us. Now he turns his attention to one of our most intense but often hidden love affairs: with our houses and their furnishings. He asks: What makes a house truly beautiful?Why are many new houses so ugly?Why do we argue so bitterly about sofas and pictures – and can differences of taste ever be satisfactorily resolved?Will minimalism make us happier than ornaments?
To answer these questions and many more, de Botton looks at buildings across the world, from medieval wooden huts to modern skyscrapers; he examines sofas and cathedrals, tea sets and office complexes, and teases out a host of often surprising philosophical insights. The Architecture of Happiness will take you on a beguiling tour through the history and psychology of architecture and interior design, and will forever alter your relationship with buildings. It will change the way you look at your current home – and help you make the right decisions about your next one.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Alain de Botton probes deeply into our thoughts and ideas about the buildings around us with amazing clarity. He puts words to feelings you might have had in the back of your mind but ignored because you didn't know whether they could be expressed. When you read his words you feel enlightened and grateful for the experience. You go back into the world with a more refined set of tools to process it with.
Most books on architecture are about history and appreciation of aesthetic and cultural details. His book cuts right through that layer. What we find beautiful is the promise of an intelligent kind of happiness. A home should be a setting that reminds us of our deepest, most genuine values, our concern for others and for the environment. What we search for in architecture is not so far from what we search for in a friend.
How wonderful to have these truths subtly and intricately revealed to us as a way of counteracting all the information about fashion and design, pumped into our brains on a daily basis. There are beautiful black and white photos and engravings throughout the book to illustrate his observations.
I loved this book, read it slowly and savoured it and will definitely be reading it again. If people of de Botton's calibre, with such depth, humour and insight, were running the world there would be hope for the human race.
Most books on architecture are about history and appreciation of aesthetic and cultural details. His book cuts right through that layer. What we find beautiful is the promise of an intelligent kind of happiness. A home should be a setting that reminds us of our deepest, most genuine values, our concern for others and for the environment. What we search for in architecture is not so far from what we search for in a friend.
How wonderful to have these truths subtly and intricately revealed to us as a way of counteracting all the information about fashion and design, pumped into our brains on a daily basis. There are beautiful black and white photos and engravings throughout the book to illustrate his observations.
I loved this book, read it slowly and savoured it and will definitely be reading it again. If people of de Botton's calibre, with such depth, humour and insight, were running the world there would be hope for the human race.
54 of 59 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book can be considered a well balanced guide to the major philosophical and theoretical debates which affect every architect-in-training in forming their own opinions and which have been debated over the past centuries. Everything from "what is archtitecture" downwards.
Contains just enough of each point of view to enable ideas to be formed, or to guide further research, without telling you what to think. Its a composition rather than a manifesto. Every ten pages or so there is a gem of a quote. And just as you start thinking, "but what does that mean for..." you turn the page and there it is, with quotes and references and everything you need to start making up your own mind.
If as an undergrad you're only likely to read one book on theory this year, and want to avoid becoming a specialist on [insert obscure german author your tutor wants an essay on], read this for the whole picture. Its really accessibly written too. And has pictures (good heavens!). And big margins.
Contains just enough of each point of view to enable ideas to be formed, or to guide further research, without telling you what to think. Its a composition rather than a manifesto. Every ten pages or so there is a gem of a quote. And just as you start thinking, "but what does that mean for..." you turn the page and there it is, with quotes and references and everything you need to start making up your own mind.
If as an undergrad you're only likely to read one book on theory this year, and want to avoid becoming a specialist on [insert obscure german author your tutor wants an essay on], read this for the whole picture. Its really accessibly written too. And has pictures (good heavens!). And big margins.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An interesting read, but rather than rock any architectural boats it is firmly on the modern architects side.
I suspect the title is specifically chosen to lure in those who wonder why beauty is such an anathema to modern architecture and artists. Alain de Botton seems to be happy to fall into the modern illness of searching for difference rather than asthetics.
Each chapter one gets lifted up by some relevation of why we think the way we do about Architecture only to be flattened by the assurance that we can't have such and such in our day and age.
It is surely not the problem of architecture that it can't produce great modern edifices but that it can't produce humane structures for the everyday person without resort to pastiche or brutalism. At the heart of this is the egotism of architecture which sees it self as an artform rather than a servant to humanity.
I suspect the title is specifically chosen to lure in those who wonder why beauty is such an anathema to modern architecture and artists. Alain de Botton seems to be happy to fall into the modern illness of searching for difference rather than asthetics.
Each chapter one gets lifted up by some relevation of why we think the way we do about Architecture only to be flattened by the assurance that we can't have such and such in our day and age.
It is surely not the problem of architecture that it can't produce great modern edifices but that it can't produce humane structures for the everyday person without resort to pastiche or brutalism. At the heart of this is the egotism of architecture which sees it self as an artform rather than a servant to humanity.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A precious book
After some years pursuing a layman's interest in architectural styles and movements, I was looking for a basic primer to begin studying in earnest - "Architecture 101", if you... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Conrad
Status? Anxiety? Moi?
Status. Anxiety. He begins by defining both then combining them to express what he sees as a basic human trait, that of defining ourselves by the names society attaches to us,... Read more
Published 9 months ago by RR Waller
Wish I'd read it earlier
This is a beautifully written, erudite exploration of architecture in its broadest sense. As a 67 year old architect I wish I had been able to read it 40 years ago!
Published 9 months ago by Panhandle
A verbal treat, byut not a serious contribution to the subject matter
I enjoyed this rather more than other AdB's that I've read recently. He has a lovely way with words, and he's good at both quoting aphorisms and making them up. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Jezza
A book with a view
I thoroughly enjoyed Alain de Botton's book on the psychology and philosophy of architecture. As a book I read for pleasure, rather than associated with study, I found that the... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Secret Spi
Content vs Price
Excellent book which was a great resource during by 'Architectural Theory' module at university, but the price of the Kindle version is ridiculous.
Published 18 months ago by BMJT
A confused, but enjoyable attempt
De Botton's book was enjoyable to read, though I never really found any resolution to the questions he posed. Sometimes, he seems to contradict himself. Read more
Published 22 months ago by M. Hamann
Raises interesting questions, but a hard slog for me
I just could not get into this book: perhaps I tried to read it at the wrong time; perhaps I'm just not that interested. Read more
Published on 14 Mar 2010 by I. Holder
Very light indeed, but not unpleasant
This is Diet-Philosophy, entirely without fat and maybe without grey matter too. Anecdotes are narrated competently and there might be an underlying thesis. Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2009 by Un francais en angleterre
Not the best but overall a very good summary of architectural ideas!!
Being an architect student, i was looking to expand my knowledge on architecture and also wanted to see this from a philosopher's point of view. Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2009 by Mr. A. Singh
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